The Kid's Nature Camp Exploration is over! What a great time we had there doing 2 days worth of programs, one about raptors and the second about reptiles. The kids were incredible! Ms. Barbara, Ms. Karen, and company had it organized and things were happening. All the kids were documenting activities with photographs and journals. After the presentation we were gifted with several very nice photos of Genius and Elmo.The Kid's Nature Camp Exploration is the second week of June at the UGA Experiment Station in Griffin. If you watch Walter Reeves gardening programs on PBS you have seen this spectacular site, as he has filmed several episodes here. Mark your calendars so you can get your kids in this program. Contact barbaraharris69@gmail.com. New York Times! Yes we were mentioned in the New York Times. There is a pair of Red Tail Hawks who nested on the window ledge of a building on the campus of New York State University. The New York Times ran a live Hawk Cam on the Redtails named Bobby and Violet. During the whole laying eggs and brooding event watchers began to notice Violets right leg swelling. Some bird bander placed a USFWS numbered band on her right leg and the foot was swelling below the band. It was obvious that the band was causing a problem which was exacerbated by her position when she was sitting on the eggs with her legs under her. This writer proposed a very simple plan, based on experience, for resolving the disability. It was mentioned in the Times. Anyway a committee, in New York, got involved and the band is still on her. In spite of her swollen foot Violet was very diligent in the care and feeding of her one chick, named Pip. Pip has now fledged and he may well migrate through Georgia as he heads south. Meanwhile Violet still has that band on her leg. WETLANDS FESTIVAL is setMark your calendars for October 1, 2011 for the Wetlands Festival at the Newman Wetlands in Clayton County(not Clayton, Ga). I believe it has a Hampton Georgia address. Carole and her crew have continued to make this event better every year. No joke folks the admission is free. They even have food and drink at very reasonable prices.You and your gang can enjoy a wonderful outdoor experience and meet a lot of great people. Buy one of the T shirts(every year is different and the work is grade A) and have all the presenters autograph it!! Homeschoolers should flock to this. You can cover a lot of science and nature topics in one place.Updates:

Mikey is almost grown. He still has some baby fuzz on his head.The "inflated" look is part of his defensive behavior. There is a lot of beak snapping and blowing going on her too.Mikey is improving his skills. He is self feeding and doesn't hesitate when rats magically appear in the flight pen.

Remember the baby screech owls from an earlier blog? Here's one of them with Elmo. It is difficult for the two of them to sit still for a picture. The other one is behind the camera.Both are becoming proficient at self feeding and recognize 4 different screech owl foods.Their favorite twilight activity is playing in the water pan.Elmo is the red owl on the left.

Bucky, the baby black vulture and Spanky, the baby Turkey vulture, are growing up.Bucky has a little bit of yellow down left while Bucky still has alot of white down on his back, head, and chest.Both are eating well and displaying appropriate species behaviors. Bucky is posturing and Spanky is hiding, Turkey Vultures are very shy.

Two more Redtails have been moved to a flight pen.The one on the left is Pretty Thing. This is a beautiful RT born this year. Arriving with a horrble case of frounce it had open canker sores in the mouth and throat. It appears well on the road to recovery after intensive treatment.The RT on the right is one of the largest most power RT's we have seen. She is called the "Black Queen"(like the Queen of Spades in the game of spades). She is about a year old, notice her tail has the brown striped juvenile feathers with 2 adult red feathers just coming in.She had a fractured wrist on the right wing. More on these two later.

RELEASED! This Red Tail Hawk was kind enough to hesitate in a tree long enough to have his picture made.He was a probable concussion with severe frounce and capillary infestation. He responded well to all treatments and was released in time to celebrate the 4th of July in the sky.He is one of two released June 30.

BarnieThe baby barn owl fell from a nestinto a feed bin. HIs sibling died in the fall. We received the barnie within 24 hours of the accident. His right left was visibly deformed as a result of the fall. Dr. Jennifer Gardner got regular xrays of the leg that showed the knee was dislocated and 2 fractures were present. In an owl of this age the bones are still growing so with proper casting the leg should be just fine. Dr. Gardner worked up a special cast for this guy and he wore it for 3 weeks with no problems. Upon removal of the cast we noticed the leg was pulling out away from the body, these pictures are in a previous blog. We began the search for a vet with orthopedic experience. Dr. Sonya at Braelin Animal Hospital agreed to see him. She did a series of 4 digital high resolution x-rays. She scheduled surgery for July 7. The surgery would require shorting the bones to put the leg back together, one leg would be shorter than the other one. She also indicated that many of the tendons and ligaments in the leg were torn. The knee would also not be moveable. I cancelled the surgery until we re-evalute the situation.

This is one of the digital xrays

It is now plain that he will never that he will never return to the wild. The next step was to evaluate him as an educational bird, a life in captivity.When raptors leave the nest they don't lay down again, unless it is a female brooding eggs. They rest by tucking one leg up under their body and standing on the other one. Our Barnie would only be able to do this with one leg, which means the injured leg would be constantly bearing weight. In a very short time the foot would start to break down and be unable to support him. Then he would have to put his weight on the other foot while that foot is being treated. Foot problems like these, known as bumblefoot, can take from a few weeks to a year to clear up. I have alot of experience dealing with bumblefoot and have seen firsthand the difficulty in treating it. The misery index is through the roof! I contacted colleages all over the country and discussed the case with them. I wanted to develop a care plan for him, is there something I am missing? No great ideas were forthcoming, rather I was repeated reminded of the misery this guy would have to endure.Today July 10 I finally admitted to myself that the call was not going to come because a plan did not exist. I euthanized Barnie today, he went very quietly. Somebody lied to me about 20 years ago, he said you will get used to this as time goes by. I haven't. I don't think I ever will.July 8th I received an email from 7 year old Katie's Mom. Katie wanted to donate the whole contents of her piggie bank, $16.69, to help Barnie. Thank you so much for such a special offering. You have a very special heart.As of July 10 we have received $240.00 in donations for Barnie. This will be applied to return the $250.00 xray bill at Braelin Animal Hospital. Thank you all for your donations.Rachael thank you for the newspaper article, Lola and Lily's mom is a goodjournalist.Thanks to Dr. Gardner for all her support and skill. Maybe we can buy a digital xray unit! Thanks also to Vonda, Glynn, and all the others I have persistently pestered with redundant questions and nagged with phone calls. We still have a bunch of younguns to feed and treat. I'll go for now.Steve